Homily - 16 August 2020 - Is that the Lord?

The Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) 

Dear brothers and sisters, 

Early last week, I had the privilege of celebrating a funeral liturgy outside of Mass for a man who was recently received into the full communion of the Catholic Church, but whose family is largely not yet Catholic. For this funeral, celebrated in the funeral home, I wore the black cassock, the white surplice, and the black stole. As I walked amidst the family, I knelt down to pray for a few moments at the casket, and then went to the lectern. As I set my book down, a toddler – probably about four years of age – asked his father, “Is that the Lord?” 

His question naturally elicited some laughter from those of us who heard it, but even as I laughed I recalled the words King David spoke to God: “You whose glory above the heavens is chanted by the mouth of babies and infants” (Psalm 8:2). That little boy may not have fully realized the importance of the question he asked, but his intuition was not too far off, at least as far as Catholic sacramental theology goes. 

A few weeks ago, the Holy See released an Instruction on “The pastoral conversion of the Parish community in the service of the evangelizing mission of the Church.” This document reminds us that a parish 

is a community gathered together by the Holy Spirit to announce the Word of God and bring new children of God to birth in the baptismal font. Assembled by the pastor, the Parish celebrates the memorial of the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord, bearing witness to faith in charity, living in a permanent state of mission, whilst ensuring that no one is excluded from the salvific, life-giving message (29). 

It is curious to note here that the parish is both gathered by the Holy Spirit and assembled by the pastor. What are we to make of this? There is much to ponder in that toddler’s question, “Is that the Lord?” 

If we look in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we are reminded that at the head of the Eucharistic assembly 

is Christ himself, the principal agent of the Eucharist. He is the high priest of the New Covenant; it is he himself who presides invisibly over every Eucharistic celebration. It is in representing him that the bishop or priest acting in the person of Christ the head (in persona Christi capitis) presides over the assembly, speaks after the readings, receives the offerings, and says the Eucharistic Prayer (1348). 

As such, one could answer that boy’s question, saying, “no;” and yet, from a sacramental perspective, one could also answer his question, saying, “Yes, in a manner of speaking” because Christ joins his priests to himself, to his own self-offering. 

If this reality is not properly understood, if a priest does not recognize that the priesthood he has received is not his own, a priest can be tempted to make the Eucharistic celebration – and the other sacraments - about himself. But if a priest recognizes that the priesthood he has received is the priesthood of Jesus Christ, then he remembers that “the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice.”[1] What is more, he remembers that “the victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different.”[2] This is the great mystery of the Eucharist that the Church’s understanding of the priesthood both undergirds and protects because it keeps the focus always on Christ the Lord whose self-offering to the Father is ever acceptable on his altar (cf. Isaiah 56:7). 

Yet the priest never offers this great sacrifice solely for himself, but always also for and with the faithful, for 

in the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. The lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are all united with those of Christ and with his total offering, and so acquire a new value.[3] 

Joined to the self-offering of Jesus, our offering of ourselves also becomes acceptable to the Father. This is why the priest invites you to “pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the almighty Father.”[4] 

Yet there is something more in that toddler’s question, “Is that the Lord?” What prompted him to ask it? Was it simply the look of my clothing, or was there something more? 

To be sure, the priest’s cassock and the Roman collar point to something more than this life; they stand as reminders to those who see them that there is something more yet to come. At the same time, they also point beyond the individual priest who wears them, hopefully directing hearts and minds to the Lord. Just as these articles of clothing are meant to do, so, too, is the life of each of the baptized meant to do: our lives are meant to point beyond this life to the life of Christ Jesus. 

When the disciples of Jesus were first called Christians in the city of Antioch, they were understood to be other Christs, other anointed ones (cf. Acts 11:26). In Baptism, you and I were anointed by Christ, through the hand of his priest, “with the Chrism of salvation, so that you may remain as a member of Christ, Priest, Prophet, and King, unto eternal life.”[5] We live out these aspects of the life of Jesus in various ways, but principally by offering ourselves with him to the Father. When have conformed our lives to Christ in a complete manner, then we can say with Saint Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). How different would the world be if you and I lived a life of discipleship so intently, if we so closely united ourselves with Christ, that wherever we walked someone would ask, “Is that the Lord?” because they saw not us, but Jesus in us? 

Such a union with the Lord is possible for each of us, and it is to such a life that we are all called. In his poem “As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame,” Gerard Manley Hopkins expressed this union well we he said, “Christ plays in ten thousand places, / Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his / To the Father through the features of men’s faces.” Through this offering of the Eucharist, may we allow ourselves to be drawn by Christ and joined to his self-offering to the Father, so that we might truly become what we will soon receive. Amen.

---

[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1367.

[2] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1367.

[3] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1368.

[4] The Order of Mass, 29.

[5] Order of Baptism for One Child, 98.

UPDATED: Bishop Silva ordains a priest on the 150 anniversary of the ordination of Saint Damien de Veuster

On the twenty-first day of May in the year 1864, "Christians came from all over the Islands" of Hawaii "to see their young spiritual Fathers who must protect them from ravening wolves," so wrote one of three priests ordained that day. Together they entered the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu as Brothers of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and of Perpetual Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar and left as Priests of Jesus Christ. They were Fathers Clement, Lievin, and Damien, our author. The three of them had arrived at Honolulu only a few weeks earlier, on March 19, 1964.

As a means of commemorating that happy day in the history of the Church in Hawaii and of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, His Excellency the Most Reverend Clarence "Larry" Silva, Bishop of Honolulu, hoped to ordain a priest in the same cathedral 150 years later. Since the Diocese of Honolulu does not have a man ready for ordination this year, he turned to the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts who had a Brother, Ajit Baliar Singh, preparing for ordination in India:

Father Ajit Baliar Singh, SS.CC.

According to Father Johnathan Hurrell, superior of the Sacred Hearts Congregation’s U.S. province, the idea to honor the 150th anniversary of St. Damien’s ordination with another ordination came from Bishop Larry Silva.

Father Hurrell initially told the bishop there was a candidate in India, but that “it was not really feasible for us to send him here.”

“However,” Father Hurrell said, “it came to light that, in his village, for political and religious reasons, it was too dangerous for him to be ordained there” [more].

If you know about the many years of persecution against Christians in the Orissa Province of India, you will understand why it was too dangerous to ordain Father Ajit at home.

Preparations were then made for then Brother Ajit to be ordained by Bishop Silva through imposition of hands and the invocation of the Holy Spirit on the 150th anniversary of the ordination of Father Damien - a date which is also the memorial of Saint Rita of Cascia - in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu.

Bishop Silva preached an excellent homily, which I hope will soon be posted online. He began, naturally enough, reflecting on the ordination and life of Father Damien:

One month shy of his 25th anniversary as a priest, Father Damien was fatally consumed by the deadly disease of leprosy. Mother Marianne Cope and Joseph Dutton, and others, prepared his body to lie in state in his beloved St. Philomena Church. As his flock filed by to view his body for the last time and to bless him with their prayers, it was almost as if he were crying out to them, "This is my body, which was given up for you."

150 years ago today, in this very same Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, young Damien de Veuster, who had recently arrived in Hawai'i from Belgium, lay on the floor as the Saints were asked to file by him one by one in that litany ever ancient and ever new and to bless him with their prayers.

His heart was bursting with that same prayer that guided their lives as he said to the Lord, "This is my body, which is given up for." He offered himself to feed the lambs of the Lamb of God, and little did he know that he himself would be consumed.

That is not a bad beginning to any homily for the ordination of priests, especially as Bishop Silva invited then Brother Ajit to make the same gift of himself to the Lord and to the Lord's flock.

As I watched the ordination of Father Ajit online (which you can also watch here), I was struck by two particular moments within the liturgy. The first was the prostration of Brother Ajit during the Litany of the Saints as the servers brought out a tapa cloth for the Deacon to lay upon as the Saints filed by blessed him:

Even at this angle you can see the beauty of the cloth made from bark of mulberry or breadfruit trees in the islands of the Pacific Ocean. The use of tapa has a long and venerable history in the Hawaiian islands and this seemed an excellent and proper method of inculturation.

The second moment happened during the Prayer of Ordination, when Bishop Silva invited the soon-to-be Father Ajit to hold the relic of Father Damien as His Excellency invoked the Holy Spirit.

In my room here in Rome, I could not begin to imagine the thoughts and emotions he experienced as he held the relic of the saintly Leper Priest as he was ordained a priest himself!

After his ordination to the priesthood, Father Damien wrote, "In spite of the hardness of my heart, it seemed to me that it would melt like wax the first time I distributed the Bread of Life." Looking back over his life, it is clear that his heart did indeed so melt before the Lord. Let us pray that the heart of Father Ajit, and the heart of every priest ordained this year, will do the same, through the intercession of Father Damien.

PHOTO CREDITS: Dann Ebina 

UPDATE: The full text of Bishop Silva's homily has been posted here.

Why priests?

Father Robert Barron ably answers Gary Wills' question, "Why priests?":

Gandalf and Priests: Servants of the Secret Fire

Prior to the Easter Vigil Saturday night, the deacon, the pastor, and I went out to where the fire would late be lit in the courtyard between the Cathedral and the school.  It is a perfect space for the fire and for the congregation to gather around it, but it was rather windy at the time.
We still had just over an hour before the beginning of the mother of all holy vigils, but I wanted to be sure we could move the Paschal Candle into the Cathedral without the blessed flame being blown out by the wind.  I suggested that we could have the Bishop lightt the Paschal Candle and then light a small votive candle that could be shielded more easily and snuck into the vestibule of the Cathedral before the Paschal Candle, just in case we should need it.  My idea was nixed.
As I returned to the sacristy pondering the situation and still envisioning the sneaking of a holy flame into the Cathedral, these words ran repeatedly through my mind:

I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor.

Neither the deacon nor the pastor knew the reference, but the servers did and so did the Bishop (who enjoyed it).
The words come, of course, from Gandalf the Grey in J. R. R. Tolkien's great trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.  Gandalf speaks the words on the bridge of Khazad-Dûm to the Balrog.  He contines, saying to the "dark figure streaming with fire," "You cannot pass.  The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn.  Go back to the Shadow!  You cannot pass."
As the lines ran through my mind again and again, I wondered if some connection might be made with the Easter Vigil, so I pulled out my Tolkien books to have a look.

The Secret Fire: The Flame of Anor

"Anor" is a Sindarin word for the Quenya word for "sun," coming from "Anar."  The "Secret Fire" of which Gandalf speaks is the Flame of Anor, which is also called the "Flame Imperishable," the divine life-force of the world and of the universe.

In The Silmarillion, Tolkien describes the coming of the light of Anor:

Then Anar arose in glory, and the first dawn of the sun was like a great fire upon the towers of the Pelóri: the clouds of Middle-earth were kindled, and there was heard the sound of many waterfalls.  Then indeed Morgoth was dismayed, and he descended into the uttermost dephs of Angband, and withdrew his servants, sending forth great reek and dark cloud to hide his land from the daystar ([New York: Ballantine Books, 2001], 112).

In Part One of The Book of Lost Tales, we learn that Melko "fared often alone into the dark places and the voids seeking the Secret Fire that giveth Life and Reality (for he had a very hot desire to bring things into being of his own)" ([Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984], 53).  It is this Secret Fire that burns "at the heart of the world" (The Silmarillion, 55).

It is to this Secret Fire that the Order of the Istari (the wizards) gave their obedience and it is this Secret Fire they wield.

The Secret Fire: The Light of Christ

Tolkien was, as we know well, a devout Catholic, and his Catholic faith lies as something of a hidden foundation supporting the world of Middle-earth.  Consequently, it is right for us to examine the Flame of Anor and to look for possible connections to Christianity.

During the great night of Easter, our attention focuses upon Jesus Christ, who referred to himself as the "light of the world" (John 8:12) and who is symbolized by the light of the Paschal Candle.

Lit from the newly blessed fire which we pray will bestow "upon the faithful the fire of [God's] glory" and incised with the Cross, the Alpha and the Omega, and the calendrical year, and marked by grains of incense symbolic of the stigmata, it is held aloft in procession to "dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds" (Roman Missal, The Easter Vigil in the Holy Night, 10-14).

As he sings the Exultet, the Deacon praises "the power of this night" that "dispels wickedness, washes faults away, restores innocense to the fallen, and joy to mourners, drives out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty."

This night is embued with such power because it is the night during which Christ rose from the dead and salvation history is brought to its fulfillment.  On this night, the Lord Jesus, whom the Exultet calls "the Morning Star who never sets," shows himself to be "the light [that] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5).  Christ is the Flame Imperishable.

What is more, "all things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.  What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race" (John 1:3-4).  Not only is the Flame Imperishable; Jesus also gives life and reality to the world.

When at last he came into the world and took on our human flesh, "he came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him" (John 1:11).  His identity was made secret and not everyone recognized his light.

A Servant of the Secret Fire
The connections between Jesus and the Secret Fire are easy enough to make, but what of a possible connection between Gandalf - and, through him, the Order of the Istari - and priests?

Writing to the Corinthians, Saint Paul said, "Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God" (II Corinthians 4:5).  A servant must pledge obedience to his master and a steward safeguards what is entrusted to him.

We saw above that Gandalf and the Istari pledged their obedience to the Flame of Anor; before their ordination, priests promise obedience to their Bishop and his successors.  At the same time, they promise to be faithful to the teachings and discipline of the Church, which is the Body of Christ.  As Saint Paul says, priests are "servants" of the Light of the World.

At the same time Gandalf serves the Secret Fire, he also wields it.  The same can be said of priests.

Jesus said, "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing" (Luke 12:49)!  When he wrote to Saint Timothy, Saint Paul urged him, saying, "I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands" (II Timothy 1:6).  It is this flame that a priest wields, the Light of Christ himself, which is entrusted to priests at their ordination when the Holy Spirit is called down upon them, the same Spirit who descended upon the Apostles in "tongues as of fire" (Acts 2:3).

Priests wield this gift, this flame, through the Sacraments.  Priests are principally ordained to celebrate the Eucharist and to hear confessions and absolve sins.  These two Sacraments of Eucharist and Penance each "dispels darkness, washes faults away, restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners, drives out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty," as the Exultet sings of the Light of Christ.

Through his priests, his servants, Christ the Lord "shed[s] his peaceful light on humanity" (Exultet) and those who follow him "will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12).

It seems, then, that when the words of Gandalf came to me quite randomly - "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor" - I wasn't too far off.

Why become a priest?

Capello tip to Father Valencheck at Adam's Ale.

A not-so-witty tweet

Yesterday someone on Twitter (so far as I know, a complete stranger to me, @Witty_Witticist), included me in one of his tweets that read:

You suck.  Having a silly book and a costume is not a real job.

I can only suppose that the "silly book" is either the Bible or the Roman Missal and that the "costume" is either the Roman collar (whether in suit form or cassock) or the sacred vestments for Mass and other liturgical celebrations.

Perhaps without knowing it, he is, to be sure, quite right.  A silly book and a costume does not make a real job.  I could grab some silly book of jokes and dress in a monkey suit but that wouldn't mean I had a job.  That is, unless someone paid me to dress in a monkey suit and tell jokes.

But there is something that the Witty Witticist doesn't quite grasp regarding the very nature of the priesthood: it is not, in point of fact, a job, but a vocation.

A job is done during certain agreed upon hours during which certain agreed upon tasks are performed.

A vocation is a way of life.  The vocation of the priesthood - like the vocation of marriage - is not performed but lived, and not for certain hours of time but every moment of every day.

In this sense, the Witty Witticist is right: I do not have a job.  I have instead a vocation.  As it happens, the job I perform is to serve as Priest Secretary and Master of Ceremonies to the Bishop and the Associate Director of the Office for Vocations.  These assignments are not necessary to my life as a priest, but to live each day as one is.

Diocesan seminarian to be ordained a deacon

Tomorrow afternoon His Eminence Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago, will ordain eleven men to the Sacred Order of Deacons in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary.  One of the men to be ordained, Scott Snider, is a seminarian for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.
A former Protestant minister, Scott entered the full communion of the Catholic Church in 2003 with his wife Pam and has been working as a Pastoral Associate at St. Gregory the Great parish in Chicago since 2004.
After Scott completed his studies and formation for the priesthood at Mundelein Seminary, Bishop Paprocki requested the permission of the Holy Father to ordain Scott to the priesthood under what is known as “the pastoral provision.”
Last week the Holy Father granted his permission; the timing of the response did not allow time to publicize the announcement.
When Scott learned of the affirmative response of the Holy Father he asked to be ordained by Cardinal George, who was already scheduled to ordain ten men tomorrow to the diaconate; Bishop Paprocki granted his permission.
Please keep Scott in your prayers.

I will attend the ordination and hope to be able to provide a few pictures.

The perfect priest?

A recent survey shows that 90% of priests describe themselves as happy, compared with just under 50% of "normal" people.

Priests are happy - moreso than others - despite the unrealistic expectations many people put upon them, summarized by this humorous - and somewhat true - caricature of the perfect priest:

The results of a computerized survey indicate the perfect priest preaches exactly fifteen minutes. He condemns sins but never upsets anyone. He works from 8:00 AM until midnight and is also a janitor. He makes $50 a week, wears good clothes, buys good books, drives a good car, and gives about $50 weekly to the poor. He is 28 years old and has preached 30 years. He has a burning desire to work with teenagers and spends all of his time with senior citizens.



The perfect priest smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work. He makes 15 calls daily on parish families, shut-ins and the hospitalized, and is always in his office when needed.

Capello tip to Father Z.

Solictor General recognizes Church's right to all-male priesthood, for now

From Catholic World News, with my emphases and comments:

In argument before the Supreme Court on an anti-discrimination case, the solicitor general—representing the Obama administration—said that the government would uphold the right of the Catholic Church to preserve an all-male priesthood, but only “because the balance of relative public and private interests is different in each case” [that clause is worrisome].   

The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, in which a woman charged that she was wrongfully dismissed from a teaching position at a Lutheran school. School officials countered that the teacher had been dismissed because she did not accept the teachings of the church. The case turned on the “ministerial exception” that is traditionally according to religious bodies, allowing them to set the standards for their own religious personnel.

Leodra Kruger, making the case for the solicitor general, questioned the “ministerial exception” directly. When questioned by Chief Justice John Roberts on whether religious groups should have the right to judge the qualifications of their own key employees, she replied: “We don't see that line of church autonomy principles in the religion clause jurisprudence as such.”

When Justice Stephen Breyer pressed the issue, asking specifically whether the Catholic Church should be allowed to bar women from the priesthood, Kruger replied: “The government's general interest in eradicating discrimination in the workplace is simply not sufficient to justify changing the way that the Catholic Church chooses its priests, based on gender roles that are rooted in religious doctrine.” But by casting her legal argument in terms of the government’s interests, rather than the unchanging language of the First Amendment, she left open the possibility that at some future date, under different circumstances, the government could side with women seeking ordination as Catholic priests [this is very worrisome].

Several justices expressed qualms about Kruger’s legal reasoning during the oral arguments [as well they should!]. When they eventually issue a ruling on the Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC case, the Supreme Court justices may reject the solicitor general’s logic and affirm the “ministerial exception.” But their decision could also making Hosanna a landmark case in the interpretation of the First Amendment—and in the Church’s defense of the all-male priesthood [more].

I think this is good news.

Fourteen years of joy

Father Guy Selvester celebrates today the fourteenth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood of Jesus Christ.  I am happy to extend to him my heartfelt congratulations and I will offer a prayer for his priestly ministry.

Reflecting on the past fourteen years of priestly life, Father Selvester says:

 must also say that, looking back over fourteen years of service, there has been the satisfaction of knowing that every now and again I've gotten it right and really helped someone. (Hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day!) There has been the inestimable privilege of baptizing people, burying their loved ones, consoling them, teaching them, praying for healing for them, absolving their sins and the unparalleled gift of being able to stand at God's altar and offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass. Despite the challenges and the occasional failures these have been years of joy!

The joy that I have experienced comes from the knowledge that I am doing what God called me to do. However imperfectly I may attempt it and no matter how unworthy I am God called me to be His servant and then gave me sufficient grace to answer that call. When you lay yourself down at night it is a comfort and a sweet reassurance to know that with whatever else you might have done with your life when the God who created the universe and all that is within it asked you to trust Him, to believe Him and to follow Him you answered the call and responded, "Here I am, send me".

Be sure to read his entire post.

Archbishop Nichols: The Liturgy should not be a point of contention

On June 7th His Excellency the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishiop of Westminster, preached an excellent homily on the priesthood and the celebration of the Mass in which he reminded his priests that they are servants of the Liturgy and not its masters.

The text of his homily follows, via Zenit, with my emphases:

The Gospel of our Mass today takes us into the heart of the relationship of Father and Son. This is the wonder of our calling, the wonder of the mystery we minister: that we human beings are welcomed into the intimacy and love of Father and Son, which is the life of the Holy Spirit.


This mystery we enter most powerfully through our celebration of the Mass. Here all is the gift of the Father. Here all is to the glory of the Father and the Son. Here is our sharing in that glory, conscious that it is expressed in and through the self-sacrificing love of the cross.

In the light and depth of this great mystery I would like to reflect on our priestly part in the celebration of the Mass. I want to do so with a directness and immediacy for, when it comes to Liturgy, we are living in a sensitive and creative time. This is a time in which the Church is asking us to recover some of the richness and depth of our liturgical heritage and, at the same time, always to ensure that the Liturgy is the sign and good at that. Among us priests Liturgy easily becomes a point of contention. It should not be so.

Today we use the text of the new English translation. It symbolises so much. We are sharply aware of the newness of the words we are using. We need to concentrate on them. We need a fresh approach in contrast to long-formed habits and familiarity.

I would like to reflect on our part in all this and offer you my convictions. Thereby I hope I might help to shape your responses. I can but try.

There are four key points that shape my reflection, all in the context of the Gospel truth we have heard. They are, fundamentally, matters of the heart, of our disposition. As such they can shape what we do. We do well to examine what lies in our hearts.

1. My first conviction is this: Liturgy is never my own possession, or my creation. It is something we are given, from the Father. Therefore my own tastes, my own preferences, my own personality, my own view of ecclesiology, are marginal, of little importance, when it comes to the celebration of the Mass. We don vestments to minimise our personal preferences, not to express or emphasise them. Liturgy is not ours. It is never to be used as a form of self-expression. Indeed the opposite is the truth. Within the diocese, when the priests of a parish change there should be clear continuity in the manner in which Mass is celebrated. The Mass is the action of the Church. That’s what matters, not my opinion. I once heard that Blessed Pope John Paul never commented on a Mass he had celebrated. It’s the Mass. My task is to be faithful.

2. My second point flows from this: the Liturgy forms us, not us the Liturgy. The words of the Mass form our faith and our prayer. They are better than my spontaneous creativity. At Mass my place is very clear: I am an instrument in the hand of the Lord. I am not a conductor, still less a composer. Ordained into the person of Christ the Head, I am just an instrumental cause of this great mystery. This is so important. My celebration of the Mass each morning shapes my heart for the day ahead. At Mass I am the Lord’s instrument just as I hope to be in the day that follows. In all the events of the day, in the decisions I make, the words I speak, my greatest, safest hope is that the Lord will use me and that I, personally, will not get in His way. We are servants of the Liturgy through which God opens to us His saving life.

3. My third conviction is this: our part is to offer the Mass as a service to the people. In doing so we make choices and judgements about how aspects of the Mass are to be done. In doing this we must always have upper most in our minds that the heart of Liturgy is the people’s encounter with the Lord. Everything about the Liturgy is to serve this purpose. So in the choices we make, which give a particular tone to the Liturgy, our positive criterion should be: will this serve the encounter of the people with the Lord? Of course, things old and new can serve. Our choices though are shaped both by the instruction of the Church in its norms and guidance and by our duty to serve our people.

It seems to me that one thing above all is needed for this precious, transforming encounter with the Lord to take place in: space, space which allows for the movement of the heart to the Lord and of Him to us. At Mass we need space – spaces of silence, spaces for the quiet recollection of the people, both before and during Mass. So, the fashion of our celebration of the Mass should never be dominating or overpowering of those taking part. It should be well judged, respectful of its congregation, sensitive to their spiritual needs.

In my view one quality enhances this sense of divinely filled space in which we worship God: it is the beauty of the Liturgy and its reverence. A beautiful, cared for church is the best preparation we can provide. I was recently reminded of the words of Cardinal Hume: that our churches are not simply buildings in which we worship the Lord, but buildings with which we worship Him. I thank you for all your efforts in this important regard. The church as an arena of beauty for the Lord is, it seems to me, always a springboard of a vibrant parish.

4. My fourth and final point follows: whenever the Liturgy of the Church, the celebration of the Mass, truly enters our heart and soul, then the result is a vibrant sense of mission. When we meet the Lord in all His love for us, then we are ready to respond, especially in the care we give to the poorest and those most in need, those closest to the Heart of our Saviour. Our Diocesan ‘Conversation in Caritas’, about the social outreach of our parishes, has a Eucharistic centre. I thank you for your participation in it. A profound celebration of the Mass inexorably gives rise to a practical expression of compassion and willing service. It just is so.

My brothers, I am conscious of the length of these words and their strained character as a homily. But these are important matters, now, in the months ahead, in our hearts.

In the Mass all that we receive is a gift of the Father. It is never ours to use or shape as we please. In the Mass all is to the glory of the Son. In this we are no more than instruments, humble and delighted to play our part. In the Mass all is for the sake of our people: that they may encounter the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. In the Mass we who know Him also know that we are in this world to serve its humanity in His name, until He comes again. These are the hallmarks of our Liturgy, the measures against which we can test our hearts, our intentions and our actions.


Among us let there be a humble, joyful service of the Lord. Let us accept with joy the search for a renewal in our celebration of the Mass guided solely by the Church and let our own faith and prayer be tutored daily by what is asked of us. Amen.

A feminist atheist and a male priesthood

The National Catholic Register has an intriguing article written by Jennifer Fulwiler, one time a feminist atheist, who explains, perhaps curiously, "Why the Male Priesthood always made sense to me."

Her text follows, with my emphases:

When I got to the part in Catholicism for Dummies about the male priesthood, you’d think I would have recoiled. I had heard something about gender and the Catholic clergy in popular culture, but I didn’t know until I started researching it that the Catholic Church really doesn’t allow women to be priests. As a lifelong atheist and self-proclaimed feminist, it seems like I would have been outraged. Yet when I tried to work up some good righteous indignation, it wouldn’t come. In fact, something about this policy felt really right. Surprised at my own stance, I spent a long time pondering why I felt no urge to denounce this controversial stance as oppressive and unfair. Here’s what I came up with:

Men and women are different

At the time I had recently become a mother, and there’s nothing like pregnancy and childbirth to hit home the fact that men and women are really, really different. Even outside of the Catholic perspective, there’s no denying that whoever created us—whether you call it God or Nature or Allah or whatever—created men and women with complementary yet entirely separate capabilities. Women can carry new human life within their wombs, men can’t. Women can breastfeed, men can’t. Men are generally stronger; the strongest man in the world is always going to be the stronger than the strongest woman in the world. The list of the innate differences between the genders goes on and on. Assuming that the entire human race was not born into an inherently unfair situation, it would seem that our Creator does not believe that you need to be able to do all the same stuff in order to be equal.

What you do isn’t your worth

Along those same lines, I had begun to question this pervasive modern idea that what you do is your value. At social gatherings the first question we ask someone new is, “What do you do?” Schoolchildren are asked, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” One of the results of this idea is that we, as a society, decided that if women are not invited to do every single thing that men are invited to do, the only possible explanation could be that they are valued less—and being barred from doing certain activities means that their options for reaching complete fulfillment as human beings are limited. The more I considered it, the more this worldview struck me as sadly utilitarian. I started to think that it’s possible to believe that men don’t make good lactation consultants, women don’t make good guerrilla warfare combatants, etc. without it being a commentary about the inherent worth of one gender over another.

God became a man

As an outsider looking in on this religion, I didn’t see how anyone could believe that Christianity is true and simultaneously question the fact that God sees the two genders as having distinctly different roles. When God took on human flesh, he did so as a man. He could have come down as a woman, as a brother and sister team, or as a genderless being. But he didn’t. If you want to reject Christianity as untrue, that’s one thing; but if you accept Jesus Christ as God incarnate, it seems like you must also accept that God sees the male gender as having a special role to play in the world.

Jesus chose men to be his apostles

Peter, Andrew, James, James, John, Philip, Thomas, Matthew, Bartholomew, Thaddaeus, Simon and Judas: Those are the names of the 12 people whom Jesus personally called to be his apostles. They’re all men. The fact that God not only came down as a man, but then called only men to be his apostles (despite the fact that he was close to plenty of women), was further confirmation of the obvious fact that God has a special plan for the male gender.

God gave us Mary

So where does that leave women? Does God not see us as having a special role too? Did he forget about us? Honestly, I did have those thoughts when I was first researching Christianity, and it was kind of a bummer. The only branches of Christianity with which I had some passing experience were some of the southern Protestant denominations, and it struck me that this was a male-centric spirituality. Jesus was a man, his apostles were men, all the local preachers were men—where did women fit into the big picture of salvation history? It made me question the entire religion: Would a just God really leave an entire gender out in the cold?

Once I discovered Catholicism, one of the many things that rang true about its teachings was the emphasis on Mary. It made perfect sense that God would give a woman a critical role in his plan, someone who could serve as an example of perfect feminine holiness—and it made sense that his true Church would understand and celebrate this fact.

So when I came across the doctrine about the male priesthood, all of these ideas came together to make the Church’s official defense of its stance ring true. In fact, I might have been skeptical of Catholic doctrines if they hadn’t taught that it is a job for men, and only men, to carry on the role that God began when he himself became a man.

Ten men to attend retreat on priesthood

"Come away by yourselves and rest a while" (Mark 6:31).

The Office for Vocations of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois will sponsor a retreat for men who are high school seniors through 40 years of age who are discerning a possible vocation to the priesthood of Jesus Christ the weekend of March 18-20 at the Villa Maria on Lake Springfield.

To date, ten men have signed up to attend the retreat; there is still room for others.

If you believe that God may be calling you to share in the ordained Priesthood of Jesus Christ or if you are open to the possibility of that calling, please consider attending this retreat. The weekend, which begins Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. and ends Sunday with lunch, will be a time of prayer, discernment, discussion, leisure and quiet time with the Lord.

A reservation is requested, but there is no other obligation or cost except an open heart.

If you know someone whom you believe the Lord may be calling to the priesthood, please share this invitation with them.

For questions, information or reservations, please contact Father Christopher House, Director of the Office for Vocations, at vocations@dio.org or (217) 698-8500 ext. 182.

"Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19).

Pray for your priest(s)

A Catholic Mom in Hawaii passes on a few simple reasons to pray for your priest(s) each day:

If the priest is a saint, his people will be holy.
If the priest is holy, his people will be good.
If the priest is good, his people will be fair.
If the priest is fair, his people will be mediocre.
If the priest is mediocre, his people will be bad.

She also has a good quote from St. Francis of Assisi and from St. John Chrysostom.

From the Archdiocese of Milwaukee comes this excellent video from their recent ordination of priests:

Capello to The Deacon's Bench.

A foreshadowing

This past week I have had two opportunities to get a small taste of my forthcoming assignment as the Associate Director of the Office for Vocations.

On Wednesday I returned to St. Anthony High School in Effingham for a career fair, where I set up shop with a vocations booth, complete with posters, brochures, a display board, and sour balls (they didn't last long).

Throughout the career fair many of the boys - freshmen through seniors - came over and said to me, "So, tell me why I should be a priest," in the hopes of stumping me with their friends grinning around them.

Turning the tables on them, I replied, "The real question is this: Why shouldn't you be a priest?"

I was met with blank stares and white faces, while their friends continued grinning. Until I posed the same question to them. I very much enjoyed watching their faces go white, too.

None had a good answer, and they knew it. Perhaps several of them were trying to ignore the Lord's call.

I reminded them - I'd told them this many times before - that until they knew why they should not be a priest that they should keep praying and thinking about the priesthood. Only one tried to refuse.

Yesterday I snuck away from my parish Koinonia retreat to attend a part of the Thinking of Priesthood day in Springfield. Twelve (12) men came for the day, eight (8) of whom were high school juniors or seniors; until three or four wanted to attend the day, but were unable to due to work or family obligations.

I was very impressed with all of the men who for the day of discussion and reflection. The future of the priesthood is bright, indeed!

The Lord is certainly calling men to share in his priesthood, now it is up to us to help them respond with courage and generosity.

"This day isn't about any of us"

This past Saturday His Eminence Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago, ordained Paul Kala and Stephen Thompson to the priesthood in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield.

Cardinal George asked the Reverend Monsignor Carl A. Kemme, Diocesan Administrator, to preach at the ordination. His homily was quite good and the text of it follows, with my emphases:

When Cardinal George called to ask if I would deliver the homily at this ordination Mass, I experienced a few moments of understandable apprehension; after all, preaching before a Cardinal, an Archbishop and of course all our priests makes a simple priest like myself pause, but fairly soon I agreed and I did so mostly because I knew that I could begin these thoughts this morning in any better way than by extending to your Eminence our profound thanks for many blessings you bring to us: For your extraordinary leadership in the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, for leading so ably in the Province of Chicago, and in particular for your care and concern for us in the Diocese of Springfield over these past months as we have waited and prepared for our new bishop. His Eminence will not remember this, but many years ago, when I was a young student at St. Henry’s Prep Seminary in Belleville, one day a buzz if you will was all through the seminary, for on that day, a younger, Fr. Francis George was coming from Rome to visit the Oblate Community. I recall seeing you, your Eminence in the little chapel on the seminary grounds and quite frankly mused to myself: what the buzz was all about. Now I know, for there is a buzz today in this Diocese as you come here to graciously ordain our brothers to the Sacred Priesthood. So for all of that and for your personal kindness to me and to this Diocese, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

But having said all of this, we know full well, that today is not about a Cardinal or Bishop. This day isn’t about any of us, who are priests, not even about you Stephen and Paul, although you are at the center of why we gather in this Cathedral this morning. No. This day, as is every ordination, be it of deacons, or priests, or bishops, is about Jesus Christ, the mediator between God and man, the Priest, the only priest, who since the night before he died for us, has called rather ordinary men to an extraordinary life and mission, to be his hands, his mind, his heart, to share, as unworthy as we know we are, in the mission of Jesus, as teacher, shepherd, and priest.

As we know, in a few weeks, the universal Church will conclude the Year for Priests, on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. It has been a deeply reflective, prayerful and yes even challenging year for priests around the world. All throughout this year of grace, as we have led our people and ourselves to deeper understanding of the life and ministry of the ordained priesthood, Pope Benedict XVI has held up for us again and again, the model of priestly life and virtue, that of St. John Vianney; I am proud to pastor the parish in this diocese under his patronage and intercession, although I fall miserably short of the high standards his priestly life and ministry exemplified. Not unlike our own times, Jean Vianney lived his priesthood at a time when the Church was seen by most as irrelevant. But it was in such a context that John Vianney stepped onto the scene, rolled up his sleeves and won soul after soul, for Christ. He did it first of all by conforming his own life in every detail to the person of Jesus, with intense prayer, fasting, unswerving preaching, and a daily Sacramental life that gave him the legendary strength he needed to be a priest’s priest. In short, he imitated all that he celebrated, which is what the Church invites each of us to do on the day of our ordination.

My brothers, Stephen and Paul, today you stand at the beginning of your priestly life and ministry. You have heard the call of the Good Shepherd, “Come follow me” and you have responded selflessly and generously by entrusting the remainder of your life to him and to his mission. In the ancient gesture of prostration to be done in a few moments, you will lay down your lives for Christ and his flock as he laid down his life for us. Again and again, you will be asked to surrender your will, with all your hopes and dreams, plans and desires, to his. I pray that you will rarely utter the words: NO I WON’T, as the Church asks whatever it needs from you, unless what is asked of you is beyond your human strength or God forbid some cooperation with evil, for only in surrendering your will, will you know a more perfect joy and satisfaction, a mysterious and powerful freedom, that comes from putting your hand to the plow with Christ and never looking back. Let John Vianney teach and inspire you to daily offer yourselves with Christ on the altar of your mass; to remove any semblance of your person, allowing Christ to hear and respond through you in the confessional, to resist all manner of pride and honor, giving to God all the glory that comes through your ministry, as you preach, teach, and sanctify God’s holy people.

To my brother priests in this presbyter ate I want and need to invite something very important from us. These men to be ordained are a gift to us, gifts not to be taken for granted, but cherished and honored. It behooves us to offer them and those who come after them, in union with our bishop and his successors, a presbyterate that is healthy, supportive and joyful. To that end, I would humbly submit that we have work to do. We cannot afford to allow them or any of us, to be subject to the destructive forces strong in our world today, which have gripped far too many priests in our church, the evil that is isolation, the inclination to cynicism, or the abandonment of the hopes and dreams of the Church for us, in exchange for spiritual apathy and moral indifference. Rather, with courage and love we must invite them and ourselves to stand firm in the faith, to unite in a stronger bond of prayerful and priestly fraternity and to together become saints for nothing less is expected of us as priests after the mind and heart of the Good Shepherd.

We gather today in this beautiful Cathedral dedicated to Mary, the Immaculate Conception. No one rejoices more in heaven and on earth when new priests are born in the Church than our Blessed Mother. We hear the words of the Lord uttered from the cross millennia ago, Behold your Mother, for she truly is Mother of God and Mother of Priests and just as we would want to please our earthly mothers, so we should always desire to please her and in pleasing her, to please Christ. May these men to be ordained this day and all of us with whom they are joined in this presbyterate, receive Mary’s Mantle of loving protection, as we continue to lay down our lives in union with her Son, Jesus Christ, who is teacher, shepherd and priest.

Pope: The Eucharist should be your first love

This evening Pope Benedict XVI prayed Vespers with seminarians and men and women consecrated religious in Fatima.

The text of his homily follows, with my emphases:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

“When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son born of woman, […] so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4,5). The fullness of time came when the Eternal broke into time; by the grace of the Holy Spirit the Son of the Most High was conceived and became man in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary, type and lofty model of the believing Church. The Church does not cease to beget new sons in the Son, whom the Father willed to be the first-born of many brothers. Each one of us is called to be with Mary and like Mary, a humble and simple sign of the Church who offers herself constantly as a spouse into the hands of her Lord.

To all of you who have given your life to Christ I wish to express this evening the Church’s appreciation and recognition. Thank you for your witness, often silent and certainly not easy; thank you for your fidelity to the Gospel and to the Church. In Jesus, present in the Eucharist, I embrace my brothers in the priesthood and the deacons, the consecrated women and men, the seminarians and the members of the movements and new ecclesial communities present. May the Lord reward, as he alone can and does, all those who have made it possible for us to gather together before the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. I mention especially the Episcopal Commission for Vocations and Ministries, with its President, Bishop António Santos, whom I thank for his greeting, full of collegial and fraternal affection, at the beginning of Vespers. In this “upper room” of faith which is Fatima, the Virgin Mother shows us the way to place our pure and holy offering into the hands of the Father.

Let me open my heart and tell you that the greatest concern of every Christian, especially of every consecrated person or minister of the altar, must be fidelity, loyalty to one’s own vocation, as a disciple who wishes to follow the Lord. Faithfulness over time is the name of love, of a consistent, true and profound love for Christ the Priest. “Since Baptism is a true entry into the holiness of God through incorporation into Christ and the indwelling of his Spirit, it would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalistic ethic and a shallow religiosity” (John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, 31). In this Year for Priests which is drawing to its close, may grace in abundance come down upon you that you may live joyfully your consecration and bear witness to your priestly fidelity grounded in the fidelity of Christ. This evidently supposes true intimacy with Christ in prayer, since it is the powerful and intense experience of the Lord’s love that brings priests and consecrated persons to respond to his love in way that is exclusive and spousal.

This life of special consecration was born to keep the Gospel always before the People of God, as a reminder which manifests, certifies and proclaims to the whole Church the radical nature of the Gospel and the coming of the Kingdom. Dear consecrated men and women, by your dedication to prayer, asceticism and growth in the spiritual life, to apostolic action and mission, you are progressing towards the heavenly Jerusalem, you are a foretaste of the eschatological Church, solid in her possession and loving contemplation of God who is love. How much we need this witness today! Many of our brothers and sisters live as if there were nothing beyond this life, and without concern for their eternal salvation. Men and women are called to know and love God, and the Church has the mission to assist them in this calling. We know well that God is the master of his gifts and that conversion is a grace. But we are responsible for proclaiming the faith, the whole faith, with all its demands. Dear friends, let us imitate the Curé of Ars who prayed to the Lord in the following words: “Grant me the conversion of my parish, and I accept to suffer all that you wish for the rest of my life”. And he did everything to pull people away from their own lukewarm attitude in order to lead them back to love.

There exists a deep solidarity among all the members of the Body of Christ. It is not possible to love Christ without loving his brothers and sisters. For their salvation John Mary Vianney decided to become a priest: “to win souls for the good God”, as he said when, at eighteen years of age, he announced his vocation, just as Paul had said: “to win as many as I could” (1 Cor 9:19). The Vicar General had told him: “there is not much love of God in the parish; you will bring it there”. In his priestly passion, this holy parish priest was merciful like Jesus in meeting each sinner. He preferred to insist on the attractive aspect of virtue, on God’s mercy, in comparison to which our sins are like “grains of sand”. He pointed to the merciful love of God which had been offended. He feared that priests would become “insensitive” and accustomed to the indifference of their faithful: “Woe to the Pastor – he would warn – who remains silent while God is offended and souls are lost”.

Dear brother priests, in this place, which Mary has made special, keep before your eyes her vocation as a faithful disciple of her Son Jesus from the moment of his conception to the Cross, and then beyond, along the path of the nascent Church, and consider the unheard-of grace of your priesthood. Fidelity to one’s vocation requires courage and trust, but the Lord also wishes that you join forces: that you be concerned for one another and support one another fraternally. Moments of common prayer and study, and sharing in the demands of the priestly life and work, are a necessary part of your life. It is a fine thing when you welcome one another into your homes with the peace of Christ in your hearts! It is important to assist one another with prayer, helpful advice and discernment! Be especially attentive to those situations where there is a certain weakening of priestly ideals or dedication to activities not fully consonant with what is proper for a minister of Jesus Christ. Then is the time to take a firm stand, with an attitude of warm fraternal love, as brother assisting his brother to “remain on his feet”.

The priesthood of Christ is eternal (cf. Heb 5:6), but the life of priests is limited. Christ has willed that others continue in time the priestly ministry that he instituted. Keep alive in your hearts, and in others around you, the desire to raise up – in cooperation with the grace of the Holy Spirit – new priestly vocations among the faithful. Trustful and persevering prayer, joyful love of one’s own vocation and commitment to the work of spiritual direction will allow you to discern the charism of vocation in those whom God calls.

Dear seminarians, who have taken the first step towards the priesthood and are preparing in the major seminary or in houses of formation, the Pope encourages you to be conscious of the great responsibility which you will have to assume. Carefully examine your intentions and your motivations. Devote yourselves with a steadfast heart and a generous spirit to your training. The Eucharist, which is the centre of Christian life and the school of humility and service, should be your first love. Adoration, piety and care for the Most Holy Sacrament during these years of preparation will lead you one day to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Altar in an edifying and devout manner.

Along this path of fidelity, beloved priests and deacons, consecrated men and women, seminarians and committed lay persons, may the Blessed Virgin Mary guide us. With her and like her, we are free so as to be saints; free so as to be poor, chaste and obedient; free for all because detached from all, free from self so that others may grow in Christ, the true Holy One of the Father and the Shepherd to whom priests, as his presence, lend their voice and their gestures; free to bring to today’s world Jesus who died and rose again, Jesus who remains with us until the end of time and who gives himself to all in the Most Holy Eucharist.

The sanctifying office

Wednesday Pope Benedict XVI again devoted his general audience address to the priesthood, this time about his minsistry of sanctification.

His text follows, with my emphases:

Dear brothers and sisters,

Last Sunday, in my pastoral visit to Turin, I had the joy of pausing in prayer before the Holy Shroud, joining the more than 2 million pilgrims that during the solemn exposition of these days, have been able to contemplate it. This sacred Cloth can nourish faith and reinvigorate Christian piety, because it impels one to go to the Face of Christ, to the Body of Christ crucified and resurrected, to contemplate the Paschal Mystery, the center of the Christian message. Of the Body of the resurrected Christ, living and operating in history (cf. Romans 12:5), we, dear brothers and sisters, are living members, each one in our own function, namely, with the task that the Lord has entrusted us.

Today, in this catechesis, I would like to return to the specific tasks of priests, which, according to tradition, are essentially three: to teach, to sanctify, to govern. In one of the preceding catecheses I spoke about the first of these three missions: teaching, the proclamation of the truth, the proclamation of the God revealed in Christ or, in other words, the prophetic task of putting man in contact with the truth, of helping him to know the essential of his life, of reality itself.

Today I would like to reflect briefly with you on the second task the priest has, that of sanctifying men, above all through the sacraments and the worship of the Church. Here first of all we must ask ourselves: what does the word "saint" mean? The answer is: "Saint" is the specific quality of God's being, that is, absolute truth, goodness, love, beauty -- pure light. Hence, to sanctify a person means to put him in contact with God, with his being light, truth, pure love. It is obvious that this contact transforms the person. In ancient times there was this firm conviction: No one can see God without dying right away. The force of truth and light is too great! If man touches this absolute current, he does not survive. Moreover, there was also this conviction: Without a minimum contact with God, man cannot live. Truth, goodness, love are fundamental conditions of his being. The question is: How can man find this contact with God, which is fundamental, without dying, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the divine being? The faith of the Church tells us that God himself creates this contact, which transforms us little by little into true images of God.

Thus we return again to the task of the priest to "sanctify." No man on his own, by his own strength, can put another in contact with God. An essential part of the grace of priesthood is the gift, the task to create this contact. This is done in the proclamation of the Word of God, in which He comes to meet us. It is done in a particularly profound way in the sacraments. Immersion in the Paschal Mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ happens in baptism, is reinforced in confirmation and in reconciliation, is nourished in the Eucharist, the sacrament that builds the Church as People of God, Body of Christ, Temple of the Holy Spirit (cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation 'Pastores Gregis,' No. 32).

Hence, it is Christ himself who makes us saints, namely, who attracts us to the sphere of God. But as an act of his infinite mercy he calls some to "be" with him (cf. Mark 3:14) and to be converted, through the sacrament of Holy Orders, despite human poverty, into participants in his own priesthood, ministers of this sanctification, dispensers of his mysteries, "bridges" of the encounter with him, of his mediation between God and men and between men and God (cf. po, 5).

In the last decades there have been tendencies oriented to having the dimension of proclamation prevail in the identity and mission of the priest, separating it from that of sanctification: It has often been affirmed that it would be necessary to surmount a merely sacramental ministry. But, is it possible to genuinely exercise the priestly ministry "surmounting" the sacramental ministry? What does it mean exactly for priests to evangelize, in what does the so-called primacy of proclamation consist?

As the Gospels state, Jesus affirms that the proclamation of the Kingdom of God is the objective of his mission; this proclamation, however, is not only a "speech," but includes, at the same time, his very action; the signs, the miracles that Jesus does indicate that the Kingdom comes as a present reality and that it coincides in the end with his very person, with the gift of himself, as we have heard today in the reading of the Gospel. And the same is true for the ordained minister: he, the priest, represents Christ, the One sent by the Father, he continues his mission, through the "word" and the "sacrament," in this totality of body and soul, of sign and word. In a letter to Bishop Honoratus of Thiabe, St. Augustine says, referring to priests: "The servants of Christ, the ministers of his word and of his sacrament must, therefore, do what he commanded or permitted" (Epist. 228,2). It is necessary to reflect if in some cases this undervaluing of the faithful exercise of the munus sanctificandi did not represent, perhaps, a weakening of the faith itself in the salvific efficacy of the sacraments and, in short, in the present action of Christ and of his Spirit, through the Church, in the world.

Who, therefore, saves the world and man? The only answer we can give is: Jesus of Nazareth, Lord and Christ, crucified and resurrected. And where is the mystery realized of the death and resurrection of Christ, which brings salvation? In the action of Christ through the Church, in particular in the sacrament of reconciliation, in which from the death of sin one returns to the new life, and in every other sacramental act of sanctification (cf. po, 5). Hence, it is important to promote a suitable catechesis to help the faithful to understand the value of the sacraments, but it is also necessary, following the example of the Holy Curé d'Ars, to be available, generous and attentive in giving the faithful the treasure of grace that God has placed in our hands, and of which we are not the "owners," but custodians and administrators. Above all in this our time in which, on one hand, it seems that faith is weakening and, on the other, that a profound need and widespread search of spirituality is emerging, it is necessary that every priest remember that in his mission, the missionary proclamation, worship and the sacraments are never separated, and that he promote a healthy sacramental ministry to form the People of God and to help them live the liturgy, the worship of the Church, the sacraments in fullness as free gifts of God, free and effective acts of his saving action.

As I reminded in the Holy Chrism Mass of this year: "At the centre of the Church’s worship is the notion of 'sacrament.' This means that it is not primarily we who act, but God comes first to meet us through his action, he looks upon us and he leads us to himself. (...) God touches us through material things (...) that he takes up into his service, making them instruments of the encounter between us and himself" (Holy Chrism Mass, April 1, 2010). The truth according to which in the sacrament "it is not we men who do something" also affects, and must affect, the priestly awareness: Every presbyter knows well that he is a necessary instrument of the salvific action of God, but always as an instrument. This awareness must make one humble and generous in the administration of the sacraments, in respect of the canonical norms, but also in the profound conviction that one's mission is that of making all men, united to Christ, able to offer themselves to God as a living and holy host agreeable to him (cf. Romans 12:1).

Exemplary, on the primacy of the munus sanctificandi and of the correct interpretation of sacramental ministry, continues to be St. John Mary Vianney, who, one day, before a man who said he had no faith and wanted to debate with him, the parish priest answered: "O, my friend, you conduct yourself very poorly, I don't know how to reason ... but if you are in need of some consolation, place yourself there (his finger indicated the immobile footstool of the confessional) and believe me, that many others placed themselves on it before you, and they did not have to regret it" (cf. Monnin A., Il Curato d'Ars. Vita di Gian Battista Maria Vianney, vol. i, Turin, 1870, pp. 163-164).

Dear priests, live the liturgy and worship with joy and love: It is action that the Risen One carries out through the power of the Holy Spirit in us, with us and for us. I would like to renew the invitation I recently made to "return to the confessional as a place in which to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but also as a place in which 'to dwell' more often, so that the faithful may find compassion, advice and comfort, feel that they are loved and understood by God and experience the presence of Divine Mercy beside the Real Presence in the Eucharist" (Address to the Apostolic Penitentiary, March 11, 2010). And I would also like to invite each priest to celebrate and live the Eucharist with intensity, which is at the heart of the task of sanctifying; it is Jesus who wants to be with us, to live in us, to give himself to us, to show us the infinite mercy and tenderness of God; it is the only Sacrifice of love of Christ that makes itself present, is realized among us and reaches the throne of grace, the presence of God, embraces humanity and unites us to him (cf. Address to the Clergy of Rome, February 18, 2010).

And the priest is called to be minister of this great Mystery, in the sacrament and in life. If "the great ecclesial tradition has rightly separated sacramental efficacy from the concrete existential situation of the individual priest and so the legitimate expectations of the faithful are appropriately safeguarded," this does not take anything away from the "necessary, indeed indispensable, aspiration to moral perfection that must dwell in every authentically priestly heart": There is also an example of faith and witness of sanctity that the People of God rightly expect from their pastors (cf. Benedict XVI, Address to the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for the Clergy, March 16, 2009). And it is in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries where the priest finds the root of his sanctification (cf. po, 12-13).

Dear friends, be conscious of the great gift that priests are for the Church and for the world; through their ministry, the Lord continues saving men, making himself present, sanctifying. Know how to thank God, and above all be close to your priests with your prayer and support, especially in difficulties, so that they will be increasingly shepherds according to the heart of God. Thank you.

[Translation by ZENIT]

Barron offers advice on vocations

Over at The Deacon's Bench, Deacon Greg Kandra points us to an interview with Father Rober Barron titled, "How to Build a Better Priest."

Deacon Kandra points us to these words of Father Barron, which are particularly good (with my emphases):

For too long we've had a preferential option for mediocrity in the priesthood. We almost embrace mediocrity as the norm. What's the difference between a doctor and a priest? As someone once answered long ago, there really is no comparison: one deals with matters of life and death; the other just deals with the health of the body.

Before the 18th-century Enlightenment, the greatest minds of the West gave themselves to soul doctoring. After the Enlightenment, the greatest minds tended to go into the physical sciences, especially into care for the body. The body is important: we respect our doctors, and we expect a great deal from them, and from our psychiatrists. We don't accept mediocrity.

So why do we accept mediocrity in the priesthood? Why do we say priesthood is less demanding than being a medical doctor? It should be an elitist sort of call, just as being a doctor is elitist. If I were the president of a medical school and you said, "This is an elitist place," I'd say, "Yes, it is-we only want the best." I think we should say that about priesthood, too.

Let's say you're a bright, spiritually engaged 18-year-old. Will you be a brain surgeon or a priest? A corporate lawyer or a priest? Which one is more challenging, more enticing? I want to make priesthood as exciting as being a brain surgeon, and as difficult and inspiring. My wager is that we would attract many more people by presenting priesthood this way, rather than trying to flatten it out and render it mediocre.

He couldn't be more right about this.